We’d only got off the plane from Japan on Tuesday morning and the jet-lag was kicking in.
It had been a successful trip for us overall, finishing second at the World Grand Prix where we lost on penalties to Argentina in the final on Sunday.
Naturally, the players were disappointed to lose, but we’d been asked to appear at Wembley later that day, to help announce the renewal of the partnership with Mars and their commitment to supporting more inclusivity in football.
It was hard for us because we were jet-lagged but when I asked two of the lads, Roy Turnham and Dan English, if they would be up for doing it, they were in no doubt because they really want to help get that kind of awareness out there and being asked to do something like that is a massive thing for us.
Historically, we don’t get a lot of coverage because there’s not really a lot that people get out of having the disability teams around so it’s unbelievable that a big company like Mars are thinking along those lines, and hopefully it can be the first of many for us.
They have been ground-breaking in this area as a company too, as they had a Maltesers advert with disabled actors during the last Paralympics which I remember, so it’s obviously something which is at the forefront of their mind.
It came on the back of a really good trip for us. The competition itself was for teams who are in the top 12 in the world of the IBSA rankings, so it was a decent standard.
There were six nations in total with two groups of three teams, with the top two progressing to the final and the others playing off for third, fourth, fifth and sixth.
We didn’t start that well either, we lost our first game 2-1 against Japan when we struggled a bit with the conditions.
But when we played against Turkey, a side who are ranked third in Europe and were European champions in 2015, we absolutely dominated the game, played really well and won 4-1 to get into the final against Argentina.
They are probably the best team in the world at the moment and at times, we looked like we were going to win the game but it ended 0-0 and we lost on a penalty shoot-out unfortunately.
Whilst we were disappointed coming back home, as winning the tournament would’ve been a massive bonus for us, we took an awful lot out of it and what we got was a real progression in performances.
Next up for us is a trip to Madrid, where we’ll play a couple of games against Spain and it’s all part of our preparation for June’s World Cup, which is also being hosted in Spain.
With 16 teams involved, it’s the biggest World Cup that we’ve had and we know it’s always going to be difficult.
But with the added confidence from this trip of playing well against the best teams and getting good results, we’ll be going into it with an open mind and aiming for the semi-finals or even a place in the final if we perform well.
Beyond that, we’ll be heading into the 2019 European games, which will give us an opportunity to qualify for the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo.
And with the financial backing from FA, in which some of that support would drip through from their partners being so important, it’s great that Mars are on board again.
Our budgets have gradually increased over the years and it all comes through sponsorship so it has an impact on us and if the programmes with Mars can help more disability footballers to get started, then that can only be a good thing.
You can find out more about the new agreement with Mars by reading the attached document below.
